Red Letter Challenge Kids: The 11-Day Discipleship Experience for KidsSample

Day 6: Jesus Serving

"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:13-14a

A little trick to splitting a yummy treat fairly between two people is to have one person do the cutting and the other person do the picking. This keeps things fair because the cutting person will try to keep the two pieces as equal as possible so that the other person who picks first has a hard time choosing the biggest piece. Fairness is very important to us. 

One day Jesus went to a very expensive dinner. He noticed that the more important people were getting the better seats at the table. When Jesus saw this, He said, "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14: 13-14a

This sure wasn’t a fair statement to the man who hosted the party; Jesus even said so! “Although they cannot repay you”, means that it would never be fair and even. 

But this was not just about a man and his party. Jesus was trying to tell them about Himself. 

Jesus came and served us, knowing he would never be repaid. You are the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind that gets invited. Inside we are blind to understanding God. We are unable to walk faithfully in the way God wants. Without God, we are poor in our ability to love others and grow in kindness. 

Jesus was saying, “Don’t you see??? This is what I am doing! My death will be the most unfair act of all time. But it’s worth it to me!”

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Jesus explains that despite all unfairness, everything will be put back just as it was supposed to be because of His resurrection. We, too, will be resurrected back into the beautiful relationship with God that we had.

No more favorite seats at the table. 

Jesus didn’t just try to make things fair, and thank goodness He didn’t! If so, we would all be eternally punished. He made things completely unfair for Himself so that we could have everlasting life. That’s way better than a cookie! 

Scripture: John 14:15, Luke 14:13-14a, Matthew 22:37-39

Challenge

Draw a rectangle on a piece of paper. Around that table write or draw as many different kinds of people as you can think of. Jesus came to serve each one of them!